Containers

ABSTRACT

A container requiring more than one operation to open, which comprises a hollow body, a lid for the body, the lid being releasably engaged such that the body is closed, and a marked member that is moveable between a first position at which the mark is hidden and the lid is engaged, and a second position at which the mark is visible and the lid is releasable.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to containers, and in particular to securitycontainers of the type requiring more than one operation to open them.Such containers include child-resistant containers that holdmedicaments.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is these days common, and even a legal requirement, for certain typesof container, such as pill boxes (that is to say, containers ofpharmaceuticals or medicaments generally in solid dose form, such aspills or pellets), to be secure. More specifically, they should bechild-proof (a term that usually means child-resistant) in that theymust be difficult, and even impossible, to open, by a simple operation.

One known type of security container requires the (screw-on) lid to bepressed firmly down/on before it is unscrewed, while another requiresthe lid to be correctly aligned before it can be prised off. However, apress-down lid may be very difficult for the aged or arthritic tooperate, while the most common container requiring alignment (ofrespective marks on the lid and on the container body) may be too easilyopened by an intelligent child.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,903 describes a security container in which the lidincludes a retractable member. When retracted, there is no evident meansof opening the lid; manipulation of the member, through a window in thelid, allows it to be pushed out from the lid, only then providing anevident tab, for opening the lid. Although this device should be easy tooperate without it being readily evident how it can be opened, itsuffers from several practical disadvantages. These disadvantagesinclude ease of opening, e.g. by a child using teeth, or accidentalopening, even when the retractable member is retracted, and thedifficulty of balancing ease of retraction/opening, e.g. for the infirmor those with large fingers, with desired security. Further, a bulky lidis required, especially if the retractable member is to be adequatelydurable, with attendant problems of plastic shrinkage, and difficulty inmoulding and manufacture, e.g. non-suitability for ultrasonic welding.This also means that the container must be sufficiently large that itwill not generally be considered portable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention, a container of the type requiringmore than one operation to open, comprises a hollow body, a lid for thebody, means for releasably engaging the lid such that the body isclosed, and a marked member. The marked member is moveable between afirst position at which the mark is hidden and said means engages thelid and a second position at which the mark is visible and the lid isreleasable.

The novel container can avoid all the disadvantages associated with theprior art, while retaining their advantages.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention proposes a variant of the alignment system. In apreferred embodiment, there is a knurled cylindrical knob sitting in awindow-like aperture in the side of the container, and rotating thisknob brings into view an alignment mark, the visibility of whichindicates that the lid can now be prised open. More specifically, theinvention provides a security container, perhaps for use as a pill-box,comprising a (conveniently hingedly) lidded container, the lid of whichhas a tongue reaching down into the body of the container; the tonguehas a projecting lug that is detachably retained by physical interactionwith a rotatable slotted wheel (or longitudinally-slotted, -grooved or-channelled cylinder) rotatably mounted in and projecting through thebody wall; the wheel is turnable from without the body to bring the slotinto or out of alignment with the lug, so as either to release thetongue, by permitting its lug to be withdrawn through the slot as thelid is lifted off the body, or to secure the tongue, by retaining thelug and thus preventing the lid being lifted off.

In one aspect, therefore, the invention provides a security containercomprising a body with a lid fitting onto the body, wherein: the lid hasa tongue reaching down (when the lid is shut) inside the container, thetongue having a lug projecting normally therefrom; the body has in awall thereof an aperture in which a wheel is rotatably mounted axiallyparallel to the tongue so as to extend both inside and outside the body,with which wheel the tongue's lug can physically interact; and the wheelhas across its rim surface a lug-matching and lug-alignable slot, and isrotatable, through the aperture from without the body, to bring the slotinto or out of alignment with the lug.

The invention provides a security container comprising a body with a lidfitting onto the body. The container may naturally be of any size andshape, and for any purpose. Typically, however, the container will befor holding potentially dangerous chemicals, particularly thepharmaceutically-active chemicals used for medicaments in solid doseform, and exemplified by pills, pellets, tablets and capsules. Thus thecontainer is what is more often referred to by the rather old-fashionedbut slightly inaccurate term "pill box", which is used herein forconvenience. Pill boxes are normally quite small, being cylindrical orcuboidal containers of about 50-60 cc capacity; a typical rectangularbox would thus be about 20 mm deep by 40 mm wide by 80 mm tall(0.75×1.5×3 in).

The pill box of the invention may be used as a conveniently small,portable reservoir of pills filled from a larger supply storedelsewhere, or even as a container supplied to a pharmacist for fillingand selling. However, the main use of the pill box of the invention isseen as a container to be supplied to a drug manufacturer or wholesaler,by whom it is then loaded and sealed, and then sent on to the retailer.The pill box, once empty, may be intended for disposal, or forre-filling and re-use.

The body of the container may be a one-piece item, formed as an integralwhole, but can conveniently be of a two-piece construction, having anupper portion (on which the lid fits) mounted on and permanentlyattached, e.g. glued, ultrasonically-welded or held by means of aretaining device, to a lower portion. Advantageously, the upper portionincorporates the window (and slotted wheel), while the lower portion issimply for holding the intended contents of the container. In onepreferred embodiment, the body is of such a two-piece form, and the toppart is itself in two side-by-side portions secured together (asexplained below, this facilitates the mounting of the wheel).

The components of the container may each be of any suitable material. Apreferred type of material, which allows the container to be shapedalmost without restriction, is a synthetic resin, or plastics, of thethermoplastic variety, e.g. a polyalkylene, polystyrene, or polyacrylic.The material may be transparent. In particular, it may be desirable tohave the bottom half of the container body transparent, so that itscontents, or lack thereof, can plainly be seen. The upper,wheel-mounting portion may be of another, opaque, substance.

The container has a body with a lid fitting thereon. Although the lidcould notionally be "loose", in the sense of being quite separate fromthe body, most conveniently the lid is hingedly attached to thecontainer, desirably by a conventional hinge/pin mechanism. Where thelid and container body are made of a suitable plastics material, the twocan also be a single item, the lid formed integrally together with thebody and "joined" thereto by a thin web of material which flexes, and socan act as the desired hinge. In the case where the body is, inhorizontal cross-section, oblong, with a pair of narrower sides and apair of wider sides, the lid is most conveniently so hinged on one ofthe shorter sides.

The lid may be in essence no more than a flat piece of material, perhapswith some small peripheral downwardly-directed flange on itsundersurface to facilitate its fitting onto the container's body. In oneembodiment, a hinged lid may have downwardly-directed side flanges orflaps (with an arcuate edge at the hinge-distant side), so that togetherwith the lid itself they form a channel through which the container'scontents are guided to the user's hand.

In a preferred security container of the invention, the lid has a tonguereaching down (when the lid is shut) inside the container, and thetongue has a lug projecting normally therefrom. In essence, the tongueis a short stiff fairly narrow flap of material (conveniently integralwith the lid) that projects normally from the under surface of the lid.When the lid is shut, the tongue preferably lies within the body closelyadjacent one wall of the container (the wall in which is mounted thewheel). Where the lid is hinged to the body, the tongue is preferablypositioned near that side edge of the lid distant from the hinge; then,when the lid is closed, the tongue will lie adjacent that body walldistant from the one to which the lid is hinged.

The lid's tongue has a lug projecting normally therefrom, this lug inuse physically interacting with, a "hooking" under, the wheel, so as tocontrol the opening of the lid. In one form, the tongue and lugcombination looks rather like the letter L (where the upright is thetongue, attached at its top to the underneath of the lid, and thehorizontal bar is the lug). In another form, however, the tongue/lugcombination looks more like a square cut letter C (or, perhaps, anotherletter L but with a very thick top end to the upright). This is as ifthe tongue itself, though narrow, had significant depth, and had had anotch cut out of it about halfway down; in this embodiment, the bottomof the tongue, i.e. that part defining the bottom edge of the notch,constitutes the lug. In either case, in use and with the lid closed, thelug projects out into physical, interactive, contact with and "behind"the wheel. Depending on the position of the wheel, the lug is either inalignment with the slot in the wheel (in which case the lid can beopened) or is not (in which case the lid cannot be opened).

The tongue and lug combination interacts with the slotted wheel so as tocontrol the opening of the security container. There may, however, besome secondary lid opening control, or retaining, means, especially ifit is preferred to keep the lid shut, even if the wheel's slot isaligned with the lug, until some positive effort is expended to open thelid. For example, the lid (or its tongue) may bear some small projectingpips, or nodules, which when the lid is shut co-operate withcorresponding dimples, or depressions in the body, to provide a slightlid-locating bias acting to stop the lid opening unless the useractually prises it open. One advantage of having such a secondary lidretaining means is that when, after the lid has been opened to accessthe container's contents, the lid is re-shut, it will generally stayshut, preventing the contents falling out, even though the wheel is notrotated to bring the slot out of lug-alignment.

In a wall of the body there is an aperture, and in this aperture thereis mounted the wheel. The aperture may take any form--any size, shapeand position--suitable for the wheel; most conveniently it is a simplerectangular aperture, like a window, of such dimensions that the wheelfits therein loosely enough to permit the wheel to be turned but tightlyenough to prevent the container's contents from falling out through anygaps between the wheel and the aperture sides. To assist in this theaperture's sides may be shaped, angled or bevelled, so as more closelyto "fit" to the wheel's surface.

The wheel is rotatably mounted so that it can be turned around (by thethumb of the user, say) to bring the slot into or out of alignment withthe lug. The axis of rotation is parallel to the tongue, i.e. parallelto the line along which the lug on the tongue moves when the lid ispushed down onto, or lifted up off, the top of the container body.Therefore, in use, the slot, which extends across the rim of the wheelfrom one side to the other (and thus parallel to the wheel's axis), canbe moved into and out of alignment with the lug. The wheel is mounted inthe aperture so that it extends both inside the container body, where itinteracts with the tongue's lug, and outside the body, where it can beoperated by the user. Most conveniently, the mounting is such that thewheel surface is almost flush with, standing only a little proud of, thebody's outside surface; in this way the wheel does not stick far enoughout of the body to be easily turned by mistake, or to be damaged byphysical contact with the outside world, yet is still simply operable bythe user.

The manner in which the wheel is mounted in, i.e. attached to and heldin or by, the container body may be any appropriate. In one preferredembodiment, the wall of the body containing the aperture is ofappreciable thickness, and the wheel has an axial mounting spindle, theends of which are located in suitably sized and positioned holes formedin that wall. Placing the spindle in these holes is facilitated byhaving the aperture-containing upper part of the body formed in twoside-by-side portions that can be pressed together, possibly by usingone or more interference fits, to make the whole, the spindle holesbeing contrived by facing matching grooves extending from facingmatching "half-aperture" openings; if the wheel is positioned in thehalf aperture in one portion, with its spindle in the correspondinggrooves, the second portion may then be located on top, making the toppart of the body and simultaneously holding the spindle, and wheel, inplace. Alternatively, when using a two-part body for the container, theupper and lower spindle holes may be formed (during some moulding stage,say) so that the wheel may be placed on the lower part with its lowerspindle in the lower hole, and the upper part then pushed into placewhile guiding the upper spindle into the upper hole. In yet anotherversion, the wall is thinner but has two pairs of spaced lugs projectingfrom its internal surface, one pair each above and below the aperture,and the wheel's spindle is a snap fit into the lug space.

The wheel is rotatably mounted in the aperture. The ease of rotation ispreferably not too great, or else the wheel will spin around almostwithout user intervention. Preferably, the wheel is a good fit withinits mounting, for example, by fixing the wheel on its spindle and makingthe spindle a tight fit within its mounting holes. One way to achievethe sort of fit required is to lightly knurl both the outside surface ofthe spindle and the inside surface of the mounting holes.

The wheel and the housing may have corresponding location means, e.g.respective depression(s) and pimple(s), for the open position. Thedegree of resistance to further turning will help to inform the userthat the lid is openable, but this can be a relatively small effect, inorder not to compromise the desired child-resistance.

The wheel itself may take one of a number of forms. It may, for example,be truly wheel-like, being narrow relative to its diameter. It may havea lug slot extending from side to side across its rim surface; whenusing such a wheel, the tongue extends from the lid sufficiently farthat, when the lid is shut, the lug actually lies beyond the wheel, so"hooking" behind the wheel (until released by rotating the wheel untilthe slot is aligned with the lug).

Alternatively, and preferably, the wheel may be more like a cylinder,with an axial length that is large relative to its diameter. With such acylindrical wheel, it is preferred that the cylinder has, at roughly itsmidpoint, and communicating with the lug slot (which extends down fromthe top/lid end of the cylinder), a suitably-sized circumferentialgroove into which the lug loosely fits, so that the lug hooks into thisgroove rather than under/behind the lid-distant side of the wheel (andthus so that the tongue need not be especially long).

The wheel has a diameter sufficient to provide a satisfactoryuser-interactive surface lying in or just proud of the aperture, andthis will conveniently be attained by sizing the wheel so that it is thebiggest that can still fit within the internal width of the containerbody. The rim surface of the wheel is conveniently knurled, so as toincrease the friction between the surface and the user's thumb (say),and thus make it easier to turn the wheel.

The wheel bears some sort of marking, such as an arrow, to be alignedwith a marking (such as another arrow) on the body. It is then evidentthat the lug and slot are in alignment, and thus that the lid can beremoved (or replaced). When the lid is securely fastened, the wheel isrotated sufficiently that the marking is not evident through theaperture.

Once the lid is open, the contents of the security container can beaccessed. For instance, pills therein can be poured out. Desirably, theupper portion of the container body is given an internal shape much likethat of an inverted funnel, so that the outward flow of the contents isrestricted, and they come out one or two at a time.

An embodiment of the invention is now described, though way ofillustration only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1A is a perspective view of the embodiment;

FIG. 1B is the same view as FIG. 1A, but partly see-through, orexploded;

FIGS. 2A to 2C are see-through views, respectively side, top and plan,of the upper portion of the container of FIG. 1; and

FIGS. 3A to 3C show details of the lid parts of the same embodiment.

The security container, or pill box, of the invention shown in FIGS. 1and 2 has a tall, deep and narrow rectangular body (generally 10) oftwo-part construction, there being a hollow lower body part (11) inwhich the pills (not shown) are stored. In one configuration the widersides of the lower body part (11) extend higher than the two narrowsides, giving the impression from one view of a U-shaped lower container(11: FIG. 1B). On the two high sides is a form of `ledge` (46) whichslots or clips into the upper section in which a rebate (47) is situated(FIG. 1B) within the upper body part (12). The upper body part (12) canbe sealingly mounted on the lower body part (11) and has a funnel-likepassageway (13: Figure 1B) therein. The passageway communicates with theinside of the lower part and leads to the outside via an opening (14),which opening is closeable by a lid (15). On the upper body part thereare four recesses (49), two located either side of the upper body part(12), which locate onto corresponding pimples (48) located on the innersurface of the longest side of the lower container (11) (FIGS. 1B and2C). The upper body of the container (12) may be held together using oneor more interference joints, the location of which can vary. A recess(50) is located on one side of the upper body (12), and on the otherhalf a `pimple` or `nodule` (51) (best seen in FIG. 2C). The lid ishinged (at one narrow end thereof, 16) to the body upper part (12) andextends along and beyond the opposite narrow end, where (when closed) itslightly overhangs the body so as to form a lip (17) by which it can bepushed up and open.

Depending from the under (as viewed) surface of the lid is a tongue (21:FIG. 1B) that has a notch (22) in it so to form a lug (23) projectingfrom the tongue (but in the plane thereof). This tongue, and this lug,fit into a passageway (21p) reaching down from the upper face of theupper body portion (12), and co-operate with an elongate knurledthumbwheel (24) rotatably mounted within a correspondingly-shapedaperture (25) in the side of the upper body part (12) as to projectslightly therefrom (see also FIG. 2). The upper (as viewed) half (24u)of the thumbwheel (24) has a lug-deep channel (26) around its middle;when the lid (15) is closed then, as best shown in FIG. 2A, the upperwheel portion (24u) fits neatly into the tongue's notch (22), while thetongue's lug (23) fits neatly into the channel (26).

The upper half (24u) of the wheel (24) also has a vertical (as viewed)tongue-wide slot (27) cut in it (as best seen in FIGS. 1B and 2B). Thewheel (24) is mounted using a spindle (31) rotatably located withinspindle holes (32u,32l), and can be rotated around the spindle axis soas to bring the slot into or out of alignment with the tongue's lug(23). When it is so aligned, as shown in FIG. 2, the tongue (21) can bepushed down the slot (21p), to allow the lid (15) to be closed, oralternatively it can be pulled out of the slot, to allow lid (15) to beopened. However, if the wheel (24) is so positioned (in its rotation)that the slot (27) and lug (23) are misaligned, then if the lid (15) isalready closed it cannot be opened (without, of course, re-aligning theslot).

To assist in aligning the slot (27) with the lug (23), suitablyslot-relative arrow pointers (33) on the wheel (24) can be aligned withsimilar arrow pointers (as 34) on the outer surface of the upper bodyportion (12).

FIG. 3A shows how the end faces of the wheel's slot (27) are slightlybevelled (at 41), so as more easily to guide the tongue (21) into place.FIGS. 3B/C show different ways of arranging for the lid actually to stayshut when it is pushed closed, even the wheel (24) is not immediatelyrotated to bring the slot into misalignment. In one (FIG. 3B), the verybase of the tongue (21) has shallow recesses or depressions (as 42)along either side, which co-operate as a sort of friction fit withraised areas (as 43) on the corresponding parts of the side surfaces ofthe passageway (21p); in the FIG. 3C embodiment, things are the otherway round, in that raised areas (as 44) at the base of the tongue (21)fit into corresponding depressions (as 45) in the side walls of thepassageway (21p).

I claim:
 1. A container requiring more than one operation to open, whichcomprises a hollow body, a lid for the body, means for releasablyengaging the lid such that the body is closed, and a single rotatableknob having a single mark disposed on a circumferential face of saidknob, with the remaining portions of said knob being unmarked, said bodyincluding a window-like aperture within which said knob is movable, saidknob being rotatable about an axis that is generally parallel to a planedefined by said aperture, said knob being moveable between a firstposition at which the mark is hidden and said means engages the lid anda second position at which the mark is visible and the lid isreleasable.
 2. A container according claim 1, in which the bodycomprises an indicator (34) with which the mark is aligned, in thesecond position.
 3. A container according to claim 1, in which the lidis hingedly attached to the body and said means includes a tongue (21),reaching into the body, with a lug (23) that is retained by the knob inthe first position, the member having a corresponding slot through whichthe tongue is releasable, in the second position.
 4. A containeraccording to claim 3, in which the body comprises an indicator withwhich the mark is aligned, in the second position.
 5. A containerrequiring more than one operation to open, which comprises a hollowbody, a lid for the body, means for releasably engaging the lid suchthat the body is closed, and a single marked member having only a singlemark and being only partially visible through an aperture in said hollowbody, the marked member moveable between a first position at which themark is hidden and said means engages the lid and a second position atwhich the mark is visible and the lid is releasable.
 6. A containeraccording to claim 5, in which the body comprises an indicator withwhich the mark is aligned, in the second position.
 7. A containeraccording to claim 5, in which the lid is hingedly attached to the bodyand said means includes a tongue, reaching into the body, with a lugthat is retained by the member in the first position, the member havinga corresponding slot through which the tongue is releasable, in thesecond position.
 8. A container according to claim 7, in which the bodycomprises an indicator with which the mark is aligned, in the secondposition.
 9. A container according to claim 5, in which the markedmember is a rotatable knob.
 10. A container according to claim 9, inwhich the body comprises an indicator with which the mark is aligned, inthe second position.
 11. A container according to claim 9, in which thelid is hingedly attached to the body and said means includes a tongue,reaching into the body, with a lug that is retained by the member in thefirst position, the member having a corresponding slot through which thetongue is releasable, in the second position.
 12. A container accordingto claim 11, in which the body comprises an indicator with which themark is aligned, in the second position.